Underneath
by AcaciaDawn105
Summary: "Underneath your clothes, There's an endless story. There's the man I chose, There's my territory," She sang to herself, dancing around the kitchen. This girl who had been alone for so long, shunned by all, yet still always knew how to smile, she could make anyone smile. Maybe it was part of her mutation, or maybe it was just part of her personality.
1. Chapter 1

_**Underneath**_

_**Prologue**_

It was too much. There was too much noise, movement. She couldn't focus. Suddenly, everything stopped.

_Take a deep breath. Remember what we practiced. Calm your mind, _ a soothing voice spoke in her head. _Very good._

Then it all rushed back into motion.

~*~AD105~*~


	2. Chapter 2

_**Ch. 1~ The Approach**_

Micha hurried through the blustery Moscow wind. Maybe coming to Russia in the middle of winter wasn't the best idea, but Barcelona had been too warm to wear long coats and hats. Besides, she had to get away, she had to go somewhere both remote and heavily populated. Seriously, other than Moscow natives, who when there in the winter. As long as kept a low profile, they wouldn't find her. Whe they were...she didn't really know, but she knew they were trouble. She turned the corner, and there he was, the same man she'd seen tailing her through the crowded Barcelona streets. His sharp cut suit would have screamed 'business man', if his long, dark hair hadn't been so mussed. Micha slowed down a bit, before she turned down an alley way to dodge the man.

At the end of the alley, a dead-end loomed at her. _Just my luck._ There were footsteps behind her, more that one set, and she hurried on. She looked back to see the man, as well as a blond-haired woman. Even as she watched, the woman's flawless pale skin turned hard and faceted, like crystal or diamond. _Mutants, shit!_ Quickening her steps, she turned. Right as another mutant appeared at the wall. His skin was bright red, with a spiked Devil's-tail flicking out from behind him. Micha's feet stopped, rooting her in place. The tail shot out at her, briefly wrapping around her arm, before she managed to shake him loose.

"Azezal, enough. We don't want her scared of us. We're here to help, remember?" Another man came from behind the two behind her. "Hello, my name is Sebastian Shaw. I'd like to speak to you about a job offer."

"How about we go somewhere a little more private?" the woman said.

Micha's eyes darted back and forth, spying a fire escape to her right. "How about no?" She darted to the wall, stepping up boxes and onto a dumpster.

"What are you doing just standing there? Get her!"

"SHAW!" Micha spun around as her hands touched the lowest rung of the ladder. Two men stood at the entry of the dark street. When they broke into a sprint, she started to climb.

Below her, a fight broke out. Someone shouted after her, calling for her to wait. Luckily, her apartment was only two buildings over, and they were situated close together, so running over rooftops was simple. Her small house was on the third floor of the building. Micha's windo opened quickly and quietly under her fingers and she dropped in. She didn't know who those new men were, and she didn't exactly care to find out, though something told her they might have had a bone to pick with the man called Shaw. Shedding her multitude of coats, scarves, and hats, she stood in a blue short-sleeve sweater, jeans, and her knitted white poncho. One hat was left perched on her head just in case she had to answer the door, a yellow, green, and orange knitted toboggan.

What could mutants possibly want with her? It wasn't as if she could help them...even if she could, she wouldn't. Though they were still kind of under the radar, there were some people who knew about them. Mostly people who had had one or more in their families...

Steam errupted immediately as she turned the knobs in the shower. Despite the freezing weather, the water was always hot enough to turn her bathroom into a sauna. However, because of the cold, Micha only needed to bathe every other day or so. Two days without, and her hair was almost greasy. She had just kicked out of her boots when there was the faintest of noises outside in the hall. It was like someone had stubbed their foot on the leg of the table, one that she had made countless times on nightly trips to the toilet. And it was followed by a faint whisper, a shushing. The door burst open right as she put her and under her drape for the only weapon she had on her.

The two men from the alley managed to fit through the door, forcing her against the back wall. The younger man had one hand on his companian's arm, trying to restrain him. The other thrust his hand out, and her body was latched to the wall by her left wrist, neck, and hips...all the places with metal. Her necklace and bracelets cut into her skin, leaving welts, nearly breaking. Micha struggled to breathe, attempting to pry the chain from her throat with her free hand.

"Why were they after you? What did Shaw want?!" The man with his hand out yelled. When she tried to tell him that she didn't know, he tightened his invisible grip. "You're lying! What connection do you have with him?"

"Erik, stop!"

"Stay out of this, Charles," he growled.

"You'll kill her if you keep on like this. She doesn't know anything. Let her go!"

The one called Erik held her, his face scrunched in anger and...pain, maybe. Before she could comprehend what had just occured, he dropped his hand, and her. Micha fell to the tile, gasping and choking, as a thin line of blood began to trickle down her chest. Both men were panting with exertion. Charles knelt dwon next to her as Erik used his powers to turn off the shower.

"Hello, Micha. My name is Charles Xavier. This is Erik. We'd like to speak to you for a moment if you don't mind." There was a faint prodding in her brain, like someone was poking her with a stick. She noticed Charles's hand on his temple...

"_Stay out of my head._" The two looked at her in astonishment. "I can feel you pushing around my thoughts. Those are private, and I'm asking you to stay out."

"How? No one has ever been able to feel me before, with the exception of Miss Frost. Are you a telepath?"

"No, just highly aware of myself and those around me. What do you want?"

"For you to tell us what Shaw wanted with you," Erik moved forward.

"I already told you, I don't know. I was getting away when you showed up. That was before he could tell me what he wanted."

"Actually, Miss Bellioun (_**pronounced Bey-yawn**_), I was wondering if you could tell me about your mutation?" The other man stared at him.

"Mutation?"

"I prefer to call it a curse." Micha pushed past them into her kitchen. "What else can you call something that forces your parents to shelter you, keep you locked away from the world...as soon as you're born?" She put the kettle on the stove. "Mama and dad didn't care, they thgouth it was wonderful. But, they knew that the rest of the world wouldn't agree." She didn't speak for a while, waiting for the water to heat. When the kettle whistled, she took it off and poured the boiling liquid into a teapot. Adding milk and sugar to the tray, she carried it out and set it down on the table. "Ther isn't much one can do to hide a physical mutation."

"You seem to be getting on well enough." Erik plopped some sugar into his tea.

Micha gave him a venomous look. "Because it is cold. Hiding doesn't go so well when it's ninety degrees outside.

"Will you show us?"

"Of course not!" she cried indignatly. "I'm not some zoo animal to be oogled at."

Charles put a hand on her knee. "I didn't mean for it to sound like that. Look, we have a bit of a proposition for you."

_**A/N**__**: Hey y'all, I was just wondering if I could possibly get some feedback from ya. I like to know what I'm doing right and wrong. Let me know, R&R. Love y'all.**_

_**AcaciaDawn.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**In response to my reveiwers: **__**Jinx of the 2nd Law~ **__**I watched the movies and realized that he never got married or anything after Mystique. Made me kinda sad, so I had to fix it. I love Shakira. Even though it's supposed to be the seventies, I'm putting some newer stuff in there.**_

_**Ch. 2~ Big House**_

Hank POV

_Grrrrrgrrrgrrrgrrrrrrrr._

His stomach complained at him for the long hours that he'd spent down in his lab. Pulling off his coke-bottle glasses, he pushed away from his desk and rubbed his burning eyes. Raven's DNA was especially impressive, but it was taking him far too long to figure out the genetic codes. At this pace, there was no way that he would have it done by the time they set out to find Shaw. Maybe, if he had someone else to help him out a little...but no. There was no one else in the world with his sort of intelligence. Eventually, he might find a partner, or an assisstant to help him, but until then, he was on his own.

Abandoning his microscope, Hank got up and moved towards the massive kitchen, thinking about what kinds of food they might have that he could throw together and take back with him. One part of his mutation was that he had an advanced motablolism, so he was always hungry. That was part of the reason that was so skinny. He stopped short...advanced hearing allowing him to hear the moving of bottles in the fridge. There was already someone in there. And he didn't know who it was. Each person had a scent, some more prominant than others, but each was slightly different. Human or mutant, male or female, even whether they were sexually active or not...that had cause him more than just a little problem.

"You can stop hiding behind the corner," he jumped at the quiet feminine voice that called to him. "Yes, I know you're there. Don't worry, I won't bite."

Coming around the wall, he searched for her, "I didn't think you would. I-I was jus-just a little ne...nervous..." The girl that raised her head up from behind the fridge door was not what he had expected. Instead of being as big and tough looking as her voice had suggested, she was rather tiny. She was short (to him anyway), yet rather curvy. Her brown and honey hair was short, and stuck out from her hat in a fringe. Her oddly luminous green eyes flickered over his form. There was no mistaking the smell of mutant blood that hung around her. She closed the door, and walked towards him with a slow sauntering gait.

"And why in the world would you be? I'm nothing to be afraid of, as you can obviously tell. I'm far to small to be any threat to a big, strong man like you." Wow, she was really laying it on thick.

"Ha-hardly strong, ma'am. Scientists, like myself, tend to have less muscle mass than others. From our li-line of work, of course." He gave her a shy smile. "Although, I do appreciate the complement, but pretending that you're not dagerous, it's not gonna work."

She stood up a little straighter, looking at him with couriosity. She took a sniff of the air. "You're mutant?"

Hank swallowed nervously, "Yes."

"What in the Sam-hell are you doing working for the CIA, then?"

"How did you-"

"That would be my fault, Hank. Sorry." Charles walked in. "It came up on the way back from Moscow, I happened to mention that one of our kind had been working with the CIA for years without being noticed for what he was...I didn't think she'd put two and two together. Not like that."

"It's obvious, though, isn't it?" Hank turned back to her. "He's a scientist, and no one else has the smell of a human's facility simply pouring from every pore in their body."

"What about Angel, or Alex? What about me and Raven?"

"Well, that's just it. You and Raven mostly smell like each other. Those places that you do smell like are older: houses, bars, schools. Alex smells like himself with a little bit of a stale room's odor...prison. And Angel...well, she smells like sweat and crowded places, alcohol and money." This strange girl cocked her head at him. "He, on the other hand, smells like new places, sterilized instruments, paper, and ink pens. He is the only one who could possibly be the one you were talking about." With that she turned away and started riffling through the cabinets.

Hank and Charles shared a look. "What on earth are you looking for?"

"Food."

"Yes, I gathered that, but what kind?"

"You're the telepath, why don't you tell me."

There was a moment of silence. "One cabinet over, top shelf, then over the stove, on the left."

"Thank you."

Charles nodded in her general direction as he left the kitchen and went to do goodness knows what. Hank stood there dumbly for a bit, watching her flutter around the kitchen.

"Are you just going to stand there catching flies all night, or was there something you wanted?" her cupid's bow lips twitched.

"Oh, uh...I was just...I came down to get somethi-thing to eat."

"Well, then you're in the right place. Anything in particular, or just a random snack that you could throw together and munch on while you went back to whatever sciency crap you were doing before you came down here?"

"Uh..."

"Nevermind. Just, if you're going to be in here, stay out of my way." He watched as she attepted to reach for the flour over the stove, barely out of reach. Hank thought it was amusing when she tried to climb on the appliance to reach it.

Micha POV

She still couldn't reach it. What the hell kind of person built this kitchen? She could almost reach it, but not quite. Suddenly, a long arm came out of nowhere and plucked the bag of flour easily. Spinning around, she smacked her chin against a nose, falling backwards and hitting the back of her head against the hood of the stove. A low hiss errupted from her throat, and she held her head as she rubbed the growing lump.

"Oh! I-I-I'm s-so sorry! Are you alright?"

"Ow-w-w-w!" Micha curled up on the stove, drawing the pain up as small as possible. She held that pose for a moment or two, before loosening up enough to breathe easliy.

"What hurts?" the man before her had lapsed into work mode. Though he was a scientist by trade, he had studied a bit of medicine during his college years, and it became a hobby since then. Looking up at him, Micha saw that there was a bit of blood trailing from his nose. Absentmindedly, she rubbed the back of her head. Following her hand, Hank found the spot with gentle fingers. She winced when he pressed down just a little too hard. "Sorry."

"It's fine. What about you?"

"Huh?"

"You're bleeding..." she motioned to his face.

Hank raised a hand to his nose, pulling it away and surprised when he found the crimson liquid on his fingertips. "Oh...it's nothing, just a few of the capillaries bursting. The inside of the nose is actually made almost compleately of small blood vessels just under the very first layer of skin, so it doesn't take much to burst them. It's facinating."

Hank POV

The girl just looked at him, blinking her eyes in what looked like confusion. "Who _are_ you?"

Taken aback at her question, he answered, "Hank McCoy. I'm a specialist in aeromechanics and biochemistry."

"And how does blowing shit up translate into nosebleeds?"

"Oh, that's not what biochemistry means. It's a mixture of two words: Biology and chem-"

"I know what biochemistry is, Professor McCoy."

"I-I-I'm not a professor. That's Charles, actually. He's a professor of genetic mutation."

"Really? Then whay are you?"

"Just a scientist. I suppose you can call me doctor...since I got my doctorat. Anyway, biochemistry is the study of chemicals in the body and how they affect a person."

"I see. So, you, in a way, are a professor of genetic mutations as well?"

"No, though I do know a bit about the x-gene."

"X-gene?"

"Sorry. The mutated gene that causes our powers or different physical appearences. It looks like an x."

"Ah..." She stared at him for a moment, then turned around and started mixing several ingredents together.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are you making?"

"Pancakes. Maybe some eggs and bacon." As if the very mention of such a wonderful homecooked meal, Hanks stomach let out yet another loud growl. She laughed. "Sounds to me like someone hasn't been eating very well." As he watched, the young man noticed a strange movement under her large sweater, around her waist.

_Who is this girl?_


End file.
